Some are calling it an “off” year, but we like to think of the 2018 Cannes Film Festival as a pivot year instead. Following a very public spat with American streaming behemoth Netflix—either the future of cinema or the destroyer of it, depending on whom you ask—the festival revealed a slate of films conspicuously light on English-language titles and Oscar bait. Which led to some grumbling about the festival losing its luster.

But as Vanity Fair has explored Cannes this year—from screenings to panels to parties—we’ve found a festival with a renewed spirit. The films—from a mix of venerable auteurs like Jean-Luc Godard and Jia Zhangke and rising stars like Eva Husson and the dashing Lukas Dhont—are the true stars of the show this year, as they should be. In making the festival a little less America-centric than it has been lately, Cannes has re-asserted itself as the premier destination for daring, provocative international cinema.

Don’t worry, there is still plenty of classic Cannes glamour to revel in, perhaps a bit more restrained than in years past, but nonetheless gracing the Croisette with a Champagne-fizz sparkle. The starry assemblage of jurors—including Cate Blanchett, Ava DuVernay, Chloë Sevigny, and Kristen Stewart—has helped maintain the festival’s profile, and the usual bunch of happy hangers-on and gadabouts has flocked to tented soirees that thump late into the night.

Vanity Fair’s Cannes 2018 Portfolio offers a look inside this year’s festivities, combing the beaches and peeking behind the scenes to capture a portrait of a festival still in need of further change (more women directors would be a good start), but headed in the right direction. Who says you can’t learn new tricks at 71?

Chloë Sevigny, a member of this year’s Critics’ Week jury.

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Michael Shannon on the beach in Cannes for the HBO film Fahrenheit 451.

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

The Boulevard de la Croisette is the festival’s main thoroughfare, where premiere-goers clad in gowns and tuxes stream toward the Palais des Festivals and late-night revelers bounce from beach club to beach club in search of the perfect Cannes high.

Sofia Boutella stars in HBO’s Fahrenheit 451 opposite Shannon and led a controversial cast in Gaspar Noé’s Climax to much acclaim and a buzzy sale to A24.

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Rooftops and beachfronts are prime real estate in Cannes, and brands are quick to claim space. Luxury jeweler Chopard occupies the roof of the Hôtel Martinez, Grey Goose vodka sets up shop at Nikki Beach, now celebrating its 16th year at the festival—even the ice cream bar company Magnum gets in on the action, throwing loud, packed parties where the sand meets the sea.

Carey Mulligan, star of Paul Dano’s festival darling, Wildlife.

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Cannes is a haven for international auteurs. Iranian two-time Oscar winner Asghar Farhadi’s latest film, Everybody Knows, was chosen to be the 2018 festival’s opening-night fill, because Farhadi is revered in these parts—and, yes, because the film’s leads are the king and queen of Spanish cinema, Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz. They’re arguably the two biggest movie stars in the competition, which feels just, Cannes being a European festival and all.

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Marion Cotillard, France’s reigning queen of cinema, met raves in Vanessa Filho’sAngel Face, and in her downtime of red carpets and fashion-house dinners, she teamed up with Jessica Chastain, Lupita Nyong’o, Fan Bingbing, and Penélope Cruz to help sell the action-packed spy thriller 355.

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

A poached egg will cost you 25€ on the terrace at the Carlton Hotel, and people are willing to pay it. They’ll also fork over as much as 198€ a head to eat at the Palme d’Or restaurant at the Hôtel Martinez. But the toughest table to get in Cannes is at Le Maschou, up the hill in the city’s old town. Lucky commoners cram in next to celebrities (we dined Jake Gyllenhaal-adjacent on our last visit) as the restaurant’s famously voluminous crudité baskets land on tables to admiring oohs and ahhs.

In 71 years, 1,645 films directed by men have competed in the official selection at Cannes. As for films directed by women? Eighty-two. That staggering imbalance is what led 82 women from the industry to stage a protest during the red carpet premiere of Eva Husson’s Girls of the Sun (with Husson’s blessing). Hopefully Cannes got the message, and we’ll see more women in the competition next year.

Salma Hayek was this year’s hostess supreme. With husband François-Henri Pinault, they celebrated the Kering Foundation with one of the most glamorous evenings in historic Old Town Cannes, highlighting Women in Motion and honoring Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins.

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Eva Husson​, France’s only female director in competition, prepares for the march, where 82 women from Cannes Jury President Cate Blanchett to Jane Fonda to Agnès Varda marched on the carpet and stood in solidarity.

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

One of the breakout stars of Cannes this year is Argentina’s Lorenzo Ferro, who plays a baby-faced killer in The Angel. At the festival, this acting newbie got a cheer of congratulations from a Spanish-speaking veteran of the art-house world, Pedro Almodóvar, a producer on the film. Not bad for a first job.

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Ava DuVernay was not only on jury duty at this year’s Cannes Film Festival—she also, along with Cate Blanchett and Kristen Stewart, was on a mission to improve gender equality. In addition to taking part in the Palais demonstration, she stood by on Monday morning as festival director Thierry Frémaux signed a pledge to promote gender parity going forward.

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

John David Washington, the breakout star of Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman, poses minutes before he leaves for the red carpet.

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

With only two American films in competition, Spike Lee's return to the Croisette, BlacKkKlansman, had all eyes on it on May 14. At its premiere screening, the film delivered, earning a long standing ovation and critics hailing it as Lee's best film in two decades. It was exactly the Cannes bow Lee, a festival fan, had hoped for. The film solidifies John David Washington's rising star (his dad, Denzel, has probably offered wise counsel on how to navigate all that), and gives nascent phenom Laura Harrier plenty of opportunity to state her case as well.

Spike Lee takes a moment to reflect the day after his standing ovation for his film BlacKkKlansman.

Justin Bishop

Laura Harrier at The Carlton hotel.

Justin Bishop

If you just focused on the main competition films at Cannes, you’d see plenty of great movies, but you’d miss out on the many smaller treasures on offer in sidebar slates like Directors’ Fortnight and Critics’ Week. This year, Gaspar Noé’s wild dance-a-thon, Climax, and the street-hustler drama Wild were sidebar stunners, earning the same kind of praise that celebrated alums like The Florida Project and The Rider enjoyed when they premiered outside the Palais.

For Kelly Preston and John Travolta, Cannes is a family affair. Starring opposite one another in mob movie Gotti, the two are also here to celebrate Travolta’s 40th anniversary of Grease with a public screening for fans on the Croisette beach.

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Nearly 70 years ago, Brigitte Bardot became an international sensation after being photographed cavorting on the French Riviera during the Cannes Film Festival. There have been plenty of beach bombshells since, and each day, as critics and actresses sweep down the Croisette in couture, hundreds of sunbathers stretch down the coast, more interested in tans than movie stars.

Michael B. Jordan was on the ground in France for only 24 hours, lending his movie-star charm to the Cannes carpet for the premiere of his film Fahrenheit 451.

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Fireworks popped and fuzzed beautifully over the Bay of Cannes on May 15 to celebrate the Cannes premiere of Solo: A Star Wars Story, Disney throwing the most lavish of the festival's beach parties.

Minutes before Emilia Clarke graced the Solo: A Star Wars Story premiere, she slipped into her Dior Haute Couture dress and Bulgari jewels, proving for Clarke, her Cinderella moment is truly out of this world.

Justin Bishop

Justin Bishop

Food, generally reduced to infrequently passed hors d'oeuvres at Cannes parties, was on ample offering at the Solo soiree at the Carlton's beach club, huge stations of sushi and elaborate bite-sized desserts spread out across two tents and an open-air area complete with a Solo branded jetty fingering out into the water. But the fireworks were the particularly magical highlight. They were generous to all else out at Cannes that night too: one V.F. writer witnessed them from the decidedly more lo-fi queer party, held annually at the American Pavilion behind the Palais. The fireworks weren't for them, but the assembled LGBTQs and allies standing on their little patch of astroturf basked in the vicarious glamour, the skies of Cannes once again lit up with grand possibility.